maxximillian:Myth 5 games only have violent themes.Who says they only have violent themes? Nothing like inventing a myth just to disprove it.

/is that an example of begging the question?

I remember playing the most violent game every. Tetris. Man, destroying all those blocks and the river of blood and guts flowing all over the screen. It was just incredibly violent. How did it ever get the rating of E for Everyone.

1. Only kids play video games? Okay, fair enough.2. Video games are pointless? Anything that can be taught via a 'video game' can be taught more effectively through other more direct means.3. Violent video games are making kids aggressive? Probably not. Though you'll forgive me if I'd rather kids play Tetris and Portal instead of 'Super Hormone Future Soldier 18'.4. Video games rot the brain? Games, period, can help the mind. Video not required. Try playing Chess and Go.

Meh, video games are just another form of entertainment. No more, no less.

They're no more or less restricted to kids than any TV show or movie- some are very much intended for kids, some are very much not, some appeal to all ages. They're no more or less pointless or violence/sex driven than any other form of entertainment.

There's really no difference between an evening spent playing Halo, Skyrim, or even Angry Birds than sitting back and watching American Idol or the latest Pixar movie.

akula:Meh, video games are just another form of entertainment. No more, no less.

Exactly.

I'm in my mid 30's, self employed, and engaged, and I still enjoy about 1/2 hour to an hour of Multiplayer online gaming a night to unwind after work (Max Payne 3 these days, or BF3 if I have more time). My weekends are pretty busy, but when I have more time and low funds, I can game some more.

My fiancee LOVES those horrible "Real Housewives of blah blah" shows, which, IMO is worse than gaming. At least I have to think about teamwork, game mechanics, strategy, etc. She just sits there watching rich c*nts fight with each other for an hour.

If games didn't advance technologically, I probably would have become bored with them at some point, but look how far we've come since "Duke Nukem". "Half Life/Half Life 2" are probably the games that hooked me for life. After Ravenholm, I clearly remember thinking, "Yeah... if they can keep creating playable movies like this, I'm gonna keep on playing them."

I was going to chime in with "White text on black background make G_J something something."

If "kids" make up less than 20% of the "gaming audience", how is it that my games on XBL seem to fill with them exclusively?

Also, along with the article's other, obvious shortcomings, I think the biggest issue with articles like these is that they don't take the time to define what a "videogame" is. Does that study include all of the 40-something office drone females who play facebook farmville all day? Sure, it's a skinner box, but so is Diablo 3, and that's definitely a video game. Is "brain age" on the DS a video game? I'm sure that lots of people would say yes; I'd call it educational/edutainment software. What about iOS/android handheld games? I'm playing the hell out of "Pocket Planes" right now and enjoying it very much, but it doesn't engage me nearly as deeply as the new DLC for Skyrim. How about Metal Gear Solid 4- videogame, or "interactive movie"? If you've played it, you'll probably lean towards the latter with a chuckle. If you want to define it as "entertainment software" (as broad as I'm willing to be), all of these "games" would be included- but it wouldn't include stuff like video-based exercise bikes, therapy "video game" software in hospitals, and the like, whereas the people utilizing those 'wares would almost certainly characterize what they're doing as "playing a video game". It would also then extend to include any software exclusively use for entertainment- is WinAmp a video game?

Cinaed:2. Video games are pointless? Anything that can be taught via a 'video game' can be taught more effectively through other more direct means.

Teaching via video games makes a nice starting point. I wanted to learn to play the guitar, but I travel a lot so I can't have a human teacher (I have an irregular schedule),so my wife bought me Rocksmith for Christmas. It teaches me basic stuff, lets me play along with songs, etc.. Granted, I will never be a master guitar player (especially since I am 30 with two very young children and I can only devote at most an hour a day to practicing, if that) via the game, but it is a nice place to learn the basics in a comfortable environment (and it is fun as well, especially the mini games that help with techniques).

Of course, just by sticking to one medium (say only books, or instructional videos, or only going to a trainer) will limit you to how much you can learn for pretty much anything.

El Morro:akula: Meh, video games are just another form of entertainment. No more, no less.

Exactly.

I'm in my mid 30's, self employed, and engaged, and I still enjoy about 1/2 hour to an hour of Multiplayer online gaming a night to unwind after work (Max Payne 3 these days, or BF3 if I have more time). My weekends are pretty busy, but when I have more time and low funds, I can game some more.

My fiancee LOVES those horrible "Real Housewives of blah blah" shows, which, IMO is worse than gaming. At least I have to think about teamwork, game mechanics, strategy, etc. She just sits there watching rich c*nts fight with each other for an hour.

If games didn't advance technologically, I probably would have become bored with them at some point, but look how far we've come since "Duke Nukem". "Half Life/Half Life 2" are probably the games that hooked me for life. After Ravenholm, I clearly remember thinking, "Yeah... if they can keep creating playable movies like this, I'm gonna keep on playing them."

/adults just play less games less often.

I couldn't agree with you more. Games like Heavy Rain, Metal Gear and Silent Hill which seem so much like playing the main character in a movie and I must yes it does proved the best outlet for some of my anger at things I think are stupid.

Burr:Teaching via video games makes a nice starting point. I wanted to learn to play the guitar, but I travel a lot so I can't have a human teacher (I have an irregular schedule),so my wife bought me Rocksmith for Christmas. It teaches me basic stuff, lets me play along with songs, etc.. Granted, I will never be a master guitar player (especially since I am 30 with two very young children and I can only devote at most an hour a day to practicing, if that) via the game, but it is a nice place to learn the basics in a comfortable environment (and it is fun as well, especially the mini games that help with techniques).

Have you considered joining a punk band? Those don't seem to require any musical talent.

I, for one, applaud this brave blogger for having the courage to take on these terrible videogame myths that everyone stopped believing a decade ago. I'm sure his next piece on how talkies didn't ruin the movie industry will be just as riveting.

That's not a myth, at least as far as violence goes. Sex games are relatively rare, but violence and murder are central in 98% of the games out there. It's amusing how he tries to argue that by saying Gears of War is actually a wholesome father and son tale.

J. Frank Parnell:Myth #5: Games only have negative themes, such as violence and sex.

Since when is sex negative?

That's not a myth, at least as far as violence goes. Sex games are relatively rare, but violence and murder are central in 98% of the games out there. It's amusing how he tries to argue that by saying Gears of War is actually a wholesome father and son tale.

He could of easily said things about Metal Gear Solid or even a slightly less violent games like Shadows of Colossus or Iko.

1. Only kids play video games? meh, people of all ages play games, but those that take it to a whole different level where it's all they do with their lives, are sad people.

2. Video games are pointless? Many if not most are pointless... aside the educational stuff, they are a distraction, a recreational activity

3. Violent video games are making kids aggressive? I've seen a lot of idiots play games and assume that they know karate or are awesome car drivers, and many appear to have the snowflake complex where they assume that winning a game means something in real life, and when people aren't impressed, they get all pissy about it.

4. Video games rot the brain? Considering some people I've known, that wasted so much of their lives on games instead of learning stuff, and then believe that this game knowledge will serve them good in real life, I'd say that yes, their brain is rotted.

Overall, games are games, entertainment for when you have free time, many take it way too seriously.

Im 25 and I love playing video games. Usually cause they are really entertaining. But if you get into an MMO, currently playing Star Trek Online, and have a group that like the same things you do, like Star Trek. It could be really fun sometimes to just talk and argue.

2. Video games are pointless?

Like stated already, some are and some are educational / work out games. But then again, so is everything else to some degree. Movies / TV is pointless unless they are educational / work out shows. They are made for entertainment reasons.

3. Violent video games are making kids aggressive?

I have yet to see any evidence that says games make people more aggressive. Then again, I have also seen people playing chess and someone gets pissed and flips the board cause they are loosing. Same goes with baseball / football / soccer / and so forth and so on.

4. Video games rot the brain?

Unless life in general rots your brain. Games stimulate your mind, at least the ones I play, tend to. Even FPSs, I tend to think strategic.

I wonder if anyone really still believes the 'video gamers are all teen/preteen boys' one? I mean, it's been a popular stereotype for a long time, but I was under the impression that it's been generally accepted to be false for quite some time now. I mean, sure, the population isn't remotely homogenous/isotropic so you get places like xbox live where the immature male stereotype is closer to accurate than usual, but overall I haven't heard anyone really defend that one in quite a while.

/In my mid-20s and pretty sure I'm the youngest one in our scheduled group game in City of Heroes

Like stated already, some are and some are educational / work out games. But then again, so is everything else to some degree. Movies / TV is pointless unless they are educational / work out shows. They are made for entertainment reasons.

Want to see heads explode? Say reading fictional literature is just as pointless as watching TV....

you don't have to like video games to be a cellar dweller. lots of young people have to hide from the insanity of their family wherever they can. i'm an old fart, we would hide and read everything. five books at a clip no problem. good weather = no where to be found out on a bicycle.

MuonNeutrino:I wonder if anyone really still believes the 'video gamers are all teen/preteen boys' one?

The Democrats tried to make video games a social wedge issue based on a "think of teh children" platform to appeal to socially conservative Baby Boomers. I don't know how far they got with it, and they backed off since the last election, but the stigma is still very much there.

Also, a lot of people think of video games as childish; as in, if you play video games, they think something's wrong with you. A number of women rule out or confront men who play video games as irresponsible and clinging to childhood. I'm OK with that, though -- we shouldn't discourage miserable, crazy gold-diggers from outing themselves.

Here's the main problem with video games. They give you a false sense of accomplishment. They feed that part of your brain that rewards you when you accomplish something, but the accomplishment is an illusion. It's not real, but your brain thinks it is. This is also a problem with TV shows, movies and even books, although perhaps to a lesser degree since these are more passive activities.

The result of over consumption of video games are people accustomed to a constant stream of gratification. This is a problem for a couple of people I know since they grow frustrated in real life when they have to struggle to accomplish something. Their job, their home and their relationships don't provide that easy, constant feeling of accomplishment, so they get bored or upset and go back to playing video games.

Like stated already, some are and some are educational / work out games. But then again, so is everything else to some degree. Movies / TV is pointless unless they are educational / work out shows. They are made for entertainment reasons.

Want to see heads explode? Say reading fictional literature is just as pointless as watching TV....

Reading is not pointless at all. That actually does help. I recall if you read Shakespeare, your vocabulary is supposed to improve. But I am not a scientist so i do not claim a thing.

But pointless does not mean its completely pointless in no use. I mean pointless as in its not meant to teach or anything. Its meant for having fun and entertainment.

Plus, I get enough of that head explosion thing when I am looking down my sniper scope in one of my FPSs.

I have yet to see any evidence that says games make people more aggressive. Then again, I have also seen people playing chess and someone gets pissed and flips the board cause they are loosing. Same goes with baseball / football / soccer / and so forth and so on.

In a class we had the standard "debate" course with selective topics. Someone chose violence in entertainment and its effects so I took the counter argument. There is just as much research for the proof side as there is for the counter argument, which to me debunks it. Biggest factor for violence especially in youths for the last 3 decade was the supreme court decision to allow abortions. Violence DROPPED 18 years later (mid 90's). Ever since that Christian crusade dropped the violence in media issue (at least in comparison to the Tipper Gore level it was at in the 90's).

I have yet to see any evidence that says games make people more aggressive. Then again, I have also seen people playing chess and someone gets pissed and flips the board cause they are loosing. Same goes with baseball / football / soccer / and so forth and so on.

In a class we had the standard "debate" course with selective topics. Someone chose violence in entertainment and its effects so I took the counter argument. There is just as much research for the proof side as there is for the counter argument, which to me debunks it. Biggest factor for violence especially in youths for the last 3 decade was the supreme court decision to allow abortions. Violence DROPPED 18 years later (mid 90's). Ever since that Christian crusade dropped the violence in media issue (at least in comparison to the Tipper Gore level it was at in the 90's).

Best is the Penn and Teller BS episode on it.

All I know is that I get mad at games but its the same rage that I would get if I smashed a finger with a hammer or stubbed my toe. And I tend to be more violent when I do the latter stuff then the former cause usually when I finally beat that one area that got be pissed to begin with. I am jumping up and down and celebrating. I do not do that when I smash a finger with a hammer, usually said hammer goes flying across the room.

Inaditch:Their job, their home and their relationships don't provide that easy, constant feeling of accomplishment, so they get bored or upset and go back to playing video games.

You can say that for most anything. It's hardly unique to video games. Porn, drugs, hobbies, anything that isn't directly productive has had this kind of accusation levied against it.

But then again, even if you are 100% correct, that still leads to the following question: The hell does it matter to YOU?

That's not me being combative, that's me trying to get a point across- what right does anybody have to dictate what forms of entertainment are acceptable or unacceptable? If you're going based on total direct and indirect impact on the world around us, video games comes off looking pretty good- somebody playing WoW or Madden every spare moment is not out harming other people. They are minding their own business and even contributing to the economy (video games are big business). So what if they aren't curing cancer? Even people out jogging, riding bikes, rock climbing, etc. are all engaged in behavior that is ultimately pointless; so they've run a marathon- who gives a flying fark? How has that made the world any better now that they've done 26.2 miles in a stretch? Sure, they're fit, but so what?

As I said, video games are no more nor less pointless than most other ways humans have found to pass the time.

dragonchild:Also, a lot of people think of video games as childish; as in, if you play video games, they think something's wrong with you. A number of women rule out or confront men who play video games as irresponsible and clinging to childhood. I'm OK with that, though -- we shouldn't discourage miserable, crazy gold-diggers from outing themselves.

Heh, yeah, that argument's always seemed particularly nonsensical to me. What makes playing video games any more inherently childish than, say, watching men in pads run into each other all over a grass field, or watching a made up story about a bunch of backbiting harpies fighting over the same man? My favorite rebuttal to that particular lunacy can be best summed up by a quote I'm fond of:

C. S. Lewis: Critics who treat adult as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.

Most of the way to a doctorate, but I'm a good couple years away from the actual hooding though. Not in anything dealing with video games though.

I'm just saying that if you look at the vast majority of pastimes, very very few are inherently more or less worthy than any other. Only if your particular hobby is volunteering can a person really claim any moral high ground, and even those folks need down time.

akula:You can say that for most anything. It's hardly unique to video games. Porn, drugs, hobbies, anything that isn't directly productive has had this kind of accusation levied against it.

But then again, even if you are 100% correct, that still leads to the following question: The hell does it matter to YOU?

That's not me being combative, that's me trying to get a point across- what right does anybody have to dictate what forms of entertainment are acceptable or unacceptable? If you're going based on total direct and indirect impact on the world around us, video games comes off looking pretty good- somebody playing WoW or Madden every spare moment is not out harming other people. They are minding their own business and even contributing to the economy (video games are big business). So what if they aren't curing cancer? Even people out jogging, riding bikes, rock climbing, etc. are all engaged in behavior that is ultimately pointless; so they've run a marathon- who gives a flying fark? How has that made the world any better now that they've done 26.2 miles in a stretch? Sure, they're fit, but so what?

As I said, video games are no more nor less pointless than most other ways humans have found to pass the time.

I don't disagree with you, and I'm certainly not trying to dictate what people can and can't do. It's a bit sad when I see someone I care about care more about his video games than just about anything else, but I know that's my own judgement.

I also agree that video games are no more or less pointless than many activities, some of which I indulge in myself. However, it IS a pointless activity.

I'm always amused at how defensive people get about their pointless hobbies, video games included.

As you state above, gaming is like drugs and porn. Not a problem to indulge a little, but it can cause real problems in people's lives.

Inaditch:I'm always amused at how defensive people get about their pointless hobbies, video games included.

Are you referring to "true" gamers, or people who are fighting to keep this shiat legal?

The reason why I'll defend certain hobbies like D&D and video games is because they were politically attacked. Some busybodies have gone as far as trying to literally (and I'm using the word "literally" literally) eradicate this shiat by making them political scapegoats for everything from school violence to some vague tearing of the moral fabric of our society. The scope of this derp extends as far as discrimination, free speech, thought crime and privacy issues.

I doubt anyone thinks video games are evil on Fark, and the heat of the fire's gone way down over the last few years, but I still keep one watchful eye on the prudes.

Inaditch:I'm always amused at how defensive people get about their pointless hobbies, video games included.

Step 1: People looking from the outside-in berate a new or emerging entertainment medium or hobby from all points of view: Political, ethical, cultural, psychological, stereotypical.Step 2: People who enjoy the hobby respond back forcefully.Step 3: "LOL WHAT ARE U NERD'S SO MAD ABOUT???"